Remarks by the President and Prime Minister Mahathir of Malaysia in Photo Opportunity
The Oval Office

4:08 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all for coming. Mr. Prime Minister,
welcome to the Oval Office, it's great to see you. I've been looking
forward to this visit to publicly thank the Prime Minister for his
strong support in the war against terror.

He, right after the September the 11th attacks, immediately went
and signed a condolences book in our embassy, and that meant a lot.
He's been a -- somebody with whom we can talk, we've got good
relations. We share a deep concern about terror, what terror means to
our respective countries, what it means to our peoples.

Mr. Prime Minister, I want to thank you for your friendship and
thank you for your leadership, and I want to welcome you.

THE PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for the
invitation. Since we met in Shanghai, I have always wanted to follow
up on what we discussed there, in particular with regard to how we
handle this problem of international terrorism. And I hope that as a
result of this visit we will be able to understand the strategy and
maybe to work out how best to deal with this problem which plagues all
the world, not just the United States. I'm quite sure that this visit
will be very fruitful.

THE PRESIDENT: I think so, too. Thank you.

A couple of questions. David.

Q Mr. Prime Minister, when you met with a group of us in New
York, you said that there was no evidence at that time that al Qaeda
was actively -- was active in Malaysia. American officials have now
told us that they believe some links do exist. Has your opinion
changed since then?

And, Mr. President, I'd like to know whether it's still the
position of the United States that Anwar Ibrahim has been jailed
primarily for his political opposition to the Prime Minister?

THE PRIME MINISTER: Well, at that time we were not very certain,
but we have discovered that some of these people who were active, who
planned to overthrow the government by force of bombs had activity into
Pakistan and eventually to Afghanistan, where they did meet with the al
Qaeda people.

And they -- I believe that they could overthrow the government by
force of bombs in order to establish what they consider to be an
Islamic state.

Q You believe they are al Qaeda?

THE PRIME MINISTER: Yes, they are. We have found evidence that
they have had involvement with these people. But they're primarily in
east Malaysia.

THE PRESIDENT: What was your second part of your question?

Q The question was, Mr. President, is it still the position of
the United States that Anwar Ibrahim, the former finance minister --

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

Q -- was jailed primarily for his political opposition to the
Prime Minister? Or do you believe -- and do you believe he should be
released?

THE PRESIDENT: Our position has not changed.

Q Mr. President --

MR. FLEISCHER: The Malaysian press.

Q Mr. President, can you tell us what you -- what we can
expect of future Malaysia-U.S. relations as a result of these talks
that are taking place today?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think you can expect continued cooperation
-- intelligence sharing, for example. Let me finish, please.

One of the things that we're finding is that our enemy is shadowy.
They lurk behind civil institutions and then they strike. They --
they're not like an enemy we've known before. And in order to make
sure our respective societies are as secure as possible, we must share
intelligence. We find out a lot about movements throughout the region,
and we're more than willing to share with the Prime Minister's
government what we know. And vice versa, and that's important. That's
incredibly important. My most important job -- I remind this to the
American people -- is to secure our homeland.

Q Not more extensive than that --

THE PRESIDENT: There's a lot more. We'll talk about trade. We'll
talk about economy. There's a lot more to talk about. But when it
comes to the security of a homeland, that's about as extensive as it
gets. You see, I'm not going to let our nation forget, or our friends
in the world forget what happened to us on September the 11th. It
could happen to somebody else, as well, and the Prime Minister
understands that.

And this is a very important visit from that respect. The --
we'll also talk about the Middle East, and I look forward to hearing
from the Prime Minister on the Middle East. So we'll have a good
discussion.

Ann.

Q Mr. President, former President Carter is in Cuba, about to
address the Cuban people. Has his -- have his remarks complicated
your foreign policy? And what would you say to the Cuban people, if
allowed to speak directly to them?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, I -- you know, I appreciate President
Carter's focus on human rights. I think that's important in Cuba, in a
place where there is no human rights.

My message -- first of all, it doesn't complicate my foreign
policy because I hadn't changed my foreign policy. And that is that
Fidel Castro is a dictator and he is repressive. And he ought to have
free elections. And he ought to have a free press. And he ought to
free his prisoners. And he ought to encourage free enterprise.

And my message to Fidel -- my message to the Cuban people is,
demand freedom and you've got a President who stands with you. And my
message to Fidel Castro is precisely what I said. I'm going to
deliver that message next Monday in -- here, and then I'm going to go
down to Miami for Cuban Independence Day.

Last question here for --

Q Mr. President, what do you think of Dr. Mahathir's definition
of terrorism and his view that the root causes of terrorism must be
addressed not through military action alone?

THE PRESIDENT: I agree with that. I think that -- but, first,
some of these people are nothing but cold-blooded killers, and there's
no rehabilitation program, except for bringing them to justice. I
mean, there's no way that -- these people made up their minds, the
leaders of these groups have decided that they're going to come and
kill. And it may be an American, it may be a Malaysian, who knows --
but we're going to stop them.

And so the best program is to use our respective militaries,
intelligence gathering, cutting off money, to go after these killers.

Now, in terms of youngsters who are looking for -- you know, who
are searching for a future, if there's a hopeless future there may be
an opportunity to convert them into potential suiciders or potential
killers. And that's what I think we need to talk about, about how to
ease hopelessness where there is no hope; I mean, to help people and to
help people realize there's a better future other than joining up with
a terrorist organization whose sole intent is destruction.

That's why education is important. Good health care initiatives
are important. That's why it's important for, you know, people in the
Middle East to feel like there is a future. It's one of the reasons
I've advocated a Palestinian state to be able to live side by side with
Israel in peace, so that there -- people realize there's a future.
And there's a better -- provide better choices for people other than
suicide killing.

But in terms of the senior al Qaeda members or some of these --
listen, there's no -- as I say, I want to repeat, there's no
rehabilitation program for them. There's only one thing to do, is to
get them, and we're going to. We're going to bring them to justice.
And I will remind the Prime Minister it's going to take a while. This
is a -- and we're patient. He needs to know that the American
President, our government is a very patient government. And we're
steadfast. And we're resolved. And we're going to hunt them down.
And we look forward to continue working with him to do just that. And
we'll bring them to justice, and that's precisely what's going to
happen to these people.